Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Beginner’s Night?

Tonight we had the option to ride indoors at Crestmont or to meet at Edworthy to ride hill repeats. With highs in the low to mid 20s it is hard to pass up an opportunity to ride outside on a weekday in April. Off to Edworthy I went! Tri shorts, a tank and a short sleeve jersey was all that was needed!

Repeat #1 – 6:00

Something was wrong with my bike. I could hear something rubbing and it felt like I was pedaling through sludge. What was up with that? I hadn’t even reached the tough part of the hill yet! I pulled over at a safe spot and found that the side of my wheel was rubbing. After that…what a difference!

Repeat #2 – 5:56 and Repeat #3 – 6:51

It started to feel like amateur hour out there! I was having a lot of trouble clipping in on my left foot. I started up the hill and I couldn’t shift from my big chain ring to my small ring. Then I couldn’t shift anywhere in my back ring so I had to get off the bike to do it manually. Stopping I’d almost fall over to the other side. What on earth was happening out there?? You’d think I’d never ridden a bike before! On the third repeat I was pondering that my legs were moving so slowly, but the folks around me were pedaling at a much faster clip. Were they just that much stronger, or did I just need to turn my legs over faster in an attempt to keep momentum?

Repeat #4 – 5:26

Pedal faster, keep pedaling, don’t slow down, keep going…. I didn’t feel any more fatigued trying to pedal faster than on my previous repeats and I made it up the hill faster. Woo hoo!

Repeat #5 – 4:57

At the bottom of the hill I ran into Sarah and she told me she was going to ride this final repeat with me. As we went up she told me to think about focusing on something different every 10 strokes. 10 strokes – focus on pushing down with the pedals. 10 strokes – focus on pulling up and utilizing different muscles. 10 strokes – focus on your left leg. 10 strokes – focus on your right leg. It paid off and my final repeat was also my fastest!

And what about the road? The last time I rode repeats at Edworthy there was still quite a bit of gravel on the narrow road in and out of the park that we ride. Today it was obvious that the road had been swept, so that was nice!

And don’t forget about the brick! Even though I had already knocked out my 30 minute run earlier in the day Angie still wanted me to do at least a 10 minute brick run. I packed the bike away in the car and ran with my friend Nola. We spent so much time chatting that the 10 minutes over before I knew it. Somehow or I other I made it through one gong show of a workout! Phew!

I was having shifting trouble too but then I got a tune up! All the difference. I don't know about you but biking is still hit or miss for me. Some days I'm flying and not feeling like it's hard and others I am barely going 13 MPH and it's killing me. Wonder why this is???